Sunday, December 03, 2006

The Great Deception continues

The Mail on Sunday is running the piece illustrated, telling us that Blair is to launch a "multi-million pound propaganda war to force the British people to love the European Union and Brussels bureaucrats".

This we are told is part of his legacy as prime minister, and part of an operation "to overcome strong opposition to the EU in Britain and soften them up in the event of fresh moves to forge closer links with Brussels."

We are further told that this was secretly agreed by Mr Blair and his ministers at last week's Cabinet meeting. The Mail says Blair is so frustrated at his failure to persuade voters that the EU is a good thing, he is to spend a fortune from public funds in a final attempt to brainwash them before he resigns next year.

They include banning ministers and officials from referring to unpopular EU institutions like the European Commission, places such as Brussels and Strasbourg, the euro currency, terms like "Eurocrat" and "EU directive" and controversial policies such as the Common Agricultural Policy and the EU constitution. The ban would also extend, it would seem, to avoiding any mention of inconvenient facts, such as the EU requiring the UK to approve GM trials.

Instead ministers and officals have been ordered to try to promote the "EU brand" by linking to popular European events and institutions such as the Eurovision song contest, the Cannes Film Festival and the UEFA soccer organisation that runs the Champions League tournament - even though none of them has anything to do with the EU.

Every Whitehall department is to appoint a spin doctor responsible for promoting the EU. And Downing Street will draw up an "EU Grid" to make sure stories portraying Brussels in a good light are leaked to the media on a regular basis.

It seems the plans were drawn up on Mr Blair's instructions by Whitehall's £180,000-a-year head of communications Howell James, a close friend of EU Commissioner Peter Mandelson. Mr James had a relationship with Mr Mandelson's partner, Brazilian Reinaldo da Silva, before Mr Mandelson met him.

So we get wheels within wheels. What we do not get is honesty, or the truth. Instead, ignoring the "elephant in the room" is to get the official seal of approval. And the one thing you can guarantee is that the Boy Cameron's "not-the-Conservative-Party" will not challenge this plan. They, after all, don't do "Europe".

At least the Mail disapproves (editorial, above right), although that will not make much difference. It stands alongside the rest of the MSM in routinely failing to mention the elephant.